Χαραλαμπος Θεοπεμπτου

This year, some football fans (and their accommodating loved ones) may have found the Super Bowl Sunday's most dramatic moment wasn't part of the game at all.

Combination of a warm winter & increased natural gas production is making natural gas the fuel of choice.

A team of U.S. researchers that has been examining the impacts of radiation exposure on flora and fauna in Chernobyl will be conducting a similar long-term study in Japan.

A neat and complete list of the not-to-be-missed green fashion shows. Plus, exclusive pre-New York Fashion Week interviews with designers like Costello Tagliapietra and Crop by David Peck.

Belly Armor claims to protect pregnant women against non-ionizing radiation.

Residents of Alaska and neighboring British Columbia have known for years that the cedars are dying. Now scientists know why.

(This post is by Christine McCann)Here’s the latest of our news bulletins from the ongoing crisis at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.State of Nuclear Politics in JapanPrime Minister Yoshihiko Noda said that his country’s dependence on nuclear power should be reduced to the “maximum extent.” Noda made the remarks during a policy address to the Diet last week. Japan has approved a bill to create a new government entity, the Nuclear Regulatory Agency (NRA), which will oversee...

With this year’s United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development meeting – also known as “Rio+20” – fast approaching, Greenpeace senior political advisor Pat Lerner takes an in-depth look at the UNSG’s High Level Panel report on Global Sustainability "Resilient People, Resilient Planet:  A future worth choosing": It had been billed ahead of time as “a second Brundtland Report [1]”, designed to be visionary and describe a future 20 years from now, “a future worth choosing.” Its mandate was clearly recognized: “efforts to...

At the end of 2011, before government officials closed up shop for the holidays, President Dilma demanded final approval on the new Forest Code in Brazil. This new proposal condemns the Brazilian forests and is a deal between government and agribusiness that was made in back rooms and secret meetings. But strong public pressure against the dangerous new code and a lack of consensus inside the Congress prevailed and the final vote was left to 2012.The Brazilian Congress returned to...

At the World Economics Forum in Davos last week, no one was denying that we face serious economic, social and environmental crises. When even the Financial Times runs a series of articles on "Capitalism in crisis", it´s obvious that it’s not just the "Occupy WEF" protesters, who I joined in their igloos outside the meeting, that are asking fundamental questions about how we do business.What Davos failed to do, however, is provide adequate answers. The talk was mainly about symptoms,...

"Palm oil-diesel. Extinction and climate disaster."It’s been a bad few weeks for biofuels produced from food crops: first, the US Environmental Protection Agency said that biodiesel made from palm oil will not count towards the country’s renewable fuels mandate because they are damaging to the climate. Rainforest is destroyed and carbon-rich peatland drained in the production of palm oil and this destruction is a large source of greenhouse gas emissions which cause climate change. In the same week, figures from...

(This post is by Christine McCann)Here’s the latest of our news bulletins from the ongoing crisis at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.State of Nuclear Politics in Japan In spite of warnings by the nuclear industry that Japan will experience blackouts if nuclear reactors are not restarted this summer, Yukio Edano, the head of the Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry (METI), said he does not expect power outages even if all reactors in the country are shut down. Although...

Auckland, New Zealand - Reports that an endangered Maui’s dolphin has been killed in a fishing net off the coast of Taranaki should serve as a wake up call that current protection measures are insufficient and a total ban on set nets is needed throughout their current and historical range to save the species, warns WWF.   WWF-New Zealand’s Executive Director Chris Howe says: “This death of a Maui’s dolphin is a tragedy for a species that is down to only about...

Zagreb, Croatia - A long blue band waved by six men wearing uniforms on Zagreb’s central square today marked the start of WWF’s Riverwatch campaign aimed at halting destruction of Croatia’s unique natural rivers: the Danube, Drava and Mura - Europe’s Amazon. All three rivers are under threat from channelling works as well as from gravel and sand extraction. This poses a severe threat to unique wetlands and to Europe’s largest and best preserved floodplain forests. The Riverwatchers are volunteers...

Tunis, Tunisia: A remote seasonal salt lake on the edge of the Sahara leads a list of 15 new Ramsar Wetlands of International Importance being declared in the country on World Wetlands Day, February 2. Chott Elguetar, a 7,400 ha site with an intermittent lake, is vital to the survival of the threatened Scimitar Oryx, Addax and Dama Gazelle. It also contains traces of human religious and industrial activity that have been...

Tunis, Tunisia: A remote seasonal salt lake on the edge of the Sahara leads a list of 15 new Ramsar Wetlands of International Importance being declared in the country on World Wetlands Day, February 2. Chott Elguetar, a 7,400 ha site with an intermittent lake, is vital to the survival of the threatened Scimitar Oryx, Addax and Dama Gazelle. It also contains traces of human religious and industrial activity that have been...

Gland, Switzerland: The UN High-Level Panel for Global Sustainability call for a radical redesign of the global economy for a healthy environment and social well-being deserves a wide audience and the full attention of all governments before this year’s Rio+20 Earth Summit, global environment organization WWF said today. Resilient People, Resilient Planet: A Future worth Choosing, more than a year in preparation by a panel co-chaired by South African president Jacob Zuma and Finnish President Tarja Halonen, is a useful successor...

The illegal trade in elephant ivory is flourishing in Egypt due to a lack of law enforcement, combined with the entrance into the market of a major new consumer—the Chinese buyer, according to a new TRAFFIC investigation. The new report, Illegal ivory sales in Egypt, published in the latest issue of the TRAFFIC Bulletin states “Egypt remains one of Africa’s largest markets for illegal ivory items,” adding “No ivory items—old or new—can be sold legally in Egypt without a special...

Europe must seize the chance to stop its e-waste from triggering human rights abuses and environmental damage globally, said human rights and environmental NGOs in an open letter sent to European Environment Ministers.

Delegates from more than 100 countries begin the third round of negotiations in Nairobi for a legally binding treaty on mercury.

The condition of Europe’s soil is under pressure with its deterioration costing the EU up to €38 billion a year, says a report unveiled in Berlin by green groups EEB and DNR.

According to the EEB, the European Commission’s recommendation on the definition of nanomaterial does not go far enough.

According to the EEB, the European Commission’s proposal for a new agricultural policy unveiled today is failing to justify why Europeans should continue to spend billions, while farmers are given few new incentives to change environmentally damaging practices.